The invention relates to means of enclosing a vehicle, such as an automobile, truck or the like, for the purpose of protecting it from the destructive elements of the environment, for example, moisture, acid rain, sunlight, dust and dirt.
The need for an enclosure such as claimed in this invention arises from the recent popularity and growth of the collector car market. There is an increasing need to shelter such collector cars, especially outdoors, since indoors garage space is becoming increasingly scarce and expensive to obtain. Numerous shelters and protective devices are presently used for protection of vehicles, including car covers, car tents, protective bags and enclosed trailers or buildings. A few types of car covers can acceptably protect the upper part of an automobile from rain and sunlight but they offer very limited protection for the lower parts of a vehicle, namely the wheels, chassis parts, rocker panels and bumpers, from splashing water, blowing snow and rising moisture from the ground. Further, a car cover will physically contact the painted surfaces of a vehicle, casing possible damage from abrasion. A car tent such as cited in J. F. Oliver, Collapsible Housing Structure, U.S. Pat. No. 2,798,501 (1957), can also protect an automobile from rain and sunlight but being of an open construction at the bottom, it cannot protect from rising ground moisture. Also, since a car tent is normally not ventilated, it has a tendency under certain temperature conditions to accumulate condensation on its inside walls which can cause water droplets to form and drip on the vehicle. The resulting high humidity conditions can cause severe corrosion damage to steel and chrome plated parts. Enclosed bags of flexible material are also known to exist for the storage of automobiles. Such bags are only intended for indoor use and are inconvenient to use since they are openable only from one end. Enclosed trailers or garages are generally relatively very expensive compared to this invention and are not easily disassembled, moved or transported. Although air supported structures have been heretofore utilized for the containment of vehicles; such structures have not been as ideally suited for the task of protection and preservation of vehicles as the protective enclosure claimed herein. Prior air supported structures have employed extensive means to anchor the perimeter of the structure to the ground or to a pre-fabricated base. Such anchors must necessarily bear heavy tension loads developed by upward air pressure on the roof of the structure and must therefore be of heavy construction and costly. Examples of such construction are shown in Malet, Inflatable Structure For Use As A Shelter, U.S. Pat. No. 4,567,696 (1986), FIGS. 4 and 5 and in W. W. Bird, Weather-Tight Enclosure System, U.S. Pat. No. 3,496,686 (1970) FIG. 5. In addition, methods must be employed to seal the perimeter of such air supported structures either to a special base member or to an underlying surface, increasing cost of manufacture further. This type of construction is shown in Hickey, U.S. Pat. No. 3,929,178 (1975) as well as Patents of Malet and W. W. Bird referenced above, wherein the perimeter of a cover part is being sealed to a base member. In contrast, the portable protective enclosure claimed herein does not require means for sealing nor anchoring its perimeter. Further, Hickey's Patent referenced above would not be as suitable as this invention for housing vehicles with fine paint finishes, since its flexible cover interior is not pressurized, and thus self supporting, but opposingly is drawn tightly in contact with the vehicle by means of suction applied to its interior, thereby possibly causing damage to the paint finish of the vehicle.